Trying to Score (22 page)

Boy, how he missed those times.

Lucas parked the truck and got out, letting Aiden out too. They walked beside each other and when Aiden’s hand slid into Lucas’, he couldn’t breathe. He looked down at Aiden, and he was looking ahead of them, a smile on his face. A wide smile went across Lucas’ face as they crossed the road and went to the ticket booth. While Lucas paid, Aiden grabbed them both maps and was basically bouncing with excitement beside Lucas.

“Where to first, bud?” Lucas asked as he put his card back into his wallet before sliding it in his back pocket.

“Um, monkeys!”

Lucas laughed as Aiden practically pulled him through the walkways towards the monkeys. He had to admit, the monkeys had always been his favorite too.

“Mommy doesn’t like the monkeys, her favorite is the elephants. She usually sits on the bench while I watch,” Aiden said after 10 minutes of watching the monkeys be monkeys.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “I love the monkeys and the elephants.”

Aiden face broke into a grin. “Awesome.”

They watched some more before Aiden directed them to the elephants. The Nashville Zoo was beautiful, each exhibit was done perfectly and Lucas loved that he was sharing his first time there with his little guy. As they walked in silence, taking in the beautiful scenery, Aiden looked up at Lucas.

“Do you work?”

Lucas nodded. “I do. I am a professional hockey player for the Nashville Assassins.”

“Really!” Aiden gushed, bouncing up and down. “AA loves that team, and the Predators. She just loves hockey altogether. Mommy hates it though.”

“Yup, we used to be… friends,” Lucas lied, and hated it, but he didn’t know what to say. Fallon and he should probably discuss that.

“I do. I play with them, but right now I’m on break,” Lucas said as they passed some really fat-looking pig. He wanted to stop and look at it but it seemed that Aiden was on a mission to get to these elephants.

“Why?” Aiden asked.

“Um well, I just moved here and I needed some time to get used to things,” Lucas said. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the truth. Truth was, he had had a break down in front of his team and Elli told him to take a week.

“That’s cool. Do you like living here?”

“I do, do you?”

“Yeah, my mommy and AA are cool. So are my Grandpa and Grammie. I like my school and its way better than Shelbyville, that’s where the vineyard is.”

Lucas nodded. “Cool, I’ve never been there.”

“It’s really boring. Just a whole bunch of grapes and stuff. No kids for me to play with, but sometimes Grandpa will play with me, which is cool.”

“Yeah,” Lucas agreed. They both leaned against the gate, looking out the field at the four large elephants that roamed the grounds. “Wow, those are some big elephants.”

“Yeah, Mommy’s favorite is Rosy. She is that one,” Aiden said, pointing to the fattest elephant of the bunch. “They did a party here once and Mommy got to feed her.”

“That’s awesome.”

They watched the elephants some more before leaving for another part of the zoo. Lucas learned that Aiden liked to talk
a lot
. The kid jumped from subject to subject faster than Lucas could pass the puck. They had covered the best superhero, which they both agreed was Spiderman. Best food? Waffles, hands down. Favorite drinks? Aiden was a strawberry milkshake kid, while Lucas preferred chocolate. Lucas hadn’t talked so much in life and was surprised that he loved every minute of it.

“I think her name is pretty. Plus, like you said, no other mommies have her name, so she is one in a million according to you,” Lucas defended. He loved Fallon’s name, always had.

Aiden thought for a minute before a grin came across his sweet flushed face. “You’re right!”

Lucas laughed before they started for the exhibit. As they walked, Aiden asked, “Do you have a daddy?”

Lucas looked down at Aiden, but Aiden wasn’t looking up at him like he usually did. Lucas looked up at the sky, a small smile on his face. “I did, but he died a long time ago.”

Aiden nodded, and Lucas wondered if he knew that Lucas was his dad. Aiden looked away before quietly saying, “I don’t know my dad.”

Lucas couldn’t breathe as his heart hammered against his chest. Sweat gathered between his shoulder blades while he didn’t know what to say. So he just stood there, watching the panda climb a tree.

“My mommy says that he lives in another state. That’s why I can’t see him,” Aiden went on, but Lucas still could breathe or even forms words.

Neither one of them said anything as they left the exhibit and headed to the next one. His heart told him to tell Aiden that he was his daddy, but his brain knew to wait for Fallon. Not only because he didn’t know how to tell the innocent little boy, but because if he wanted even a glimmer of chance with Fallon, he needed to play by her rules — even if he didn’t agree with them.

He looked down to see that Aiden was looking up at him with sadness in his eyes. Sadness that didn’t belong there, and if Lucas said those four little words, they could maybe make Aiden happy. But what if it scared him, or hurt him? Lucas didn’t know, so he had to wait it out, and give Aiden a chance to see that he could be a great dad. Just like his dad was.

“’Cause then I can do what I want. I can get on a plane and fly to the state he’s in or I can drive there. Right now Mommy and AA do everything for me. I gotta wait till I can do it myself.”

“You saw it too? Awesome,” Aiden gushed as they headed for the Icee hut. Lucas loved that Aiden planned things, and he hated to be the one to break up his plans, but he was pretty sure Aiden wouldn’t mind in the long run. Aiden was going to know his dad, and hopefully love him.

“So do you think my mommy is pretty?”

Lucas looked up from the four hotdogs that sat in front of him. Aiden had mustard all over his face, a hotdog in each hand and a big grin on his face. Lucas smiled back, loving that the kid ate like he did, but a little confused by the question.

“Yeah, it’s dumb, but Mommy likes it, so does Grandpa. I have a game tomorrow, but I don’t want to go ‘cause the whole time Coach smiles at my mom. It’s gross.”

Lucas laughed, hiding the jealousy that ate at him. “Does your mom smile back?”

“Sometimes. They are weird.”

Lucas nodded before taking a bite of his hotdog. When he looked over at Aiden, he was looking up at him with his eyes wide. “Do you wanna come to my game tomorrow?”

Lucas smiled as he nodded again. “I would love too.”

“Cool!” Aiden said before he started stuffing his face. They ate in silence, with the random sounds of animals and families around him. Lucas was having the best day of his life; he just hoped Aiden was having a great day too. He seemed to be — he was always smiling — but maybe he was just a happy kid. Lucas hoped that he would tell Fallon that he had a great day, hopefully that would help things between them.

The whole day he thought of her in those extremely tight jeans. Her ass was delectable in them, and he was convinced that if he didn’t have to listen to that horrid music the whole way to the zoo, he would probably still be hard. Fallon was just that hot, and man how he wanted a taste of her again.

Aiden was an awesome kid, but — and there was only one but — he had the most horrible taste in music. Lucas didn’t think it could get any worse, but with every track it did. Lucas was determined to expose the kid to something better, no matter what Fallon said. Aiden was Lucas’ kid too, damn it, and he deserved the right to help Aiden in selecting good music.

After suffering through another half hour of that awful boy band, Lucas finally pulled up at Rocky Top Wines. Lucas got out, and then let Aiden out before they both walked, well Aiden skipped, into the building. No one was there as they made their way up the stairs to the elevators. Aiden obviously knew the place like the back of his hand and he led the way to Fallon’s office. When he threw the door open, Fallon looked up surprised before a wide grin came across her face.

“Hey honey!” she gushed as she stood up, wrapping her arms around him when he came to her. As she kissed his temple, her eyes met Lucas’ and it felt like someone had knocked him in the gut. Her beauty still did that to him. With Fallon looking up at him through her long eyelashes, her honey caramel colored eyes fixed on his, Lucas found that he was having a hard time catching his breath.

“Hey Mommy!” Aiden exclaimed as he broke apart from her. Fallon smiled down at him, cupping his cheek in her hand.

Lucas’ heart melted. Lucas loved watching Fallon when she was around Aiden. Even with her trying to hide the fact that Lucas made her nervous, he could tell that she would lay down her life for their son, and that alone made him love her more every time he saw her.

“Did y’all have fun?” she asked and Aiden nodded his head quickly.

“The best day ever!” he exclaimed as he threw a fist in the air. Lucas saw Fallon cringe but only for a second before she masked it with a bright fake smile. He hated that smile, especially when she pinned him with it.

When Fallon looked up at Lucas as if he had just disfigured their kid, he knew he was in deep shit and that Aiden’s new nickname wasn’t as awesome as they both thought it was.

“Not so much, Aiden James,” she said through her teeth, “Lucas can call you AJ but I’ll call you Aiden,” she added, trying to keep her cool, but damn it, it was hard!

“No Mommy, I want everyone to call me AJ. AA has a nickname and now I do too. I like it.”

Oh Lord, help me to not kill my baby’s father
, Fallon thought as she moved a stray piece of hair out of Aiden’s eye.

“I don’t like it much honey, Aiden is such a nice name. Mommy took a long time picking it out,” she tried to reason, but Aiden wasn’t having it.

“Well buddy, I mean, how about, well,” Lucas said, trying to get something out, but he wasn’t succeeding very well. “I got it bud, how about only I call you AJ,” Lucas then looked up at Fallon before saying, “It will be our thing.”